Electronic communication tips for physicians

Physicians and consultants recently shared with Medical Economics advice on communicating electronically with patients.

EMAIL AND TEXTING

• Consider increasing communicating with patients via emessaging as a way to free up time for additional interactions.

• Consider charging patients for increased access to your practice via emessaging.

• Be sure your actions comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and that your messages are encrypted and secure.

• If your messages are not encrypted, then include this fact in your risk analysis.

• Before you begin communicating with a patient via email, ensure that he or she is comfortable communicating this way.

• It may be acceptable for patients to send you practice-related text messages if they have your cell phone number, since they are initiating the communication, but proceed with caution before responding to ensure HIPAA compliance.

PATIENT PORTALS

• Use a patient portal to facilitate secure, private communication and provide convenience to patients who wish to access their medical records online.

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Establish your practice’s social media policy before launching social media efforts. Then enforce it.

• Limit your posts to professional matters.

• Do not mix your personal and professional accounts.

• Consider creating a fan page for your practice on Facebook. Doing so will bypass the dilemma of friend requests because fan pages operate solely on “likes.”

• Do not promote products from which you stand to gain financially.

• As a matter of policy, do not post any information that others could use to identify a patient. Before posting any image, recording, or potentially identifiable information about a patient on a public site, obtain patient authorization via a compliant agreement.

• Speak to patients collectively, but do not answer individual medical inquiries or try to make a diagnosis. Tell patients to seek individualized medical attention as appropriate.